Track Of The Day: The Paranoyds – ‘Carnage Bargain’

Having been introduced to their sleazy garage rock sounds with previous singles ‘Hungry Sam’/’Trade Our Sins’, LA newcomers The Paranoyds have now announced the release of their debut album, and shared title track ‘Carnage Bargain’.

Inspired by society’s need to consume, the track is driven by a deep whirring scuzz and layers of swirling instrumentation accompanying refreshing, insouciant vocals with shades of the likes of the languid sounds of Kim Gordon or Courtney Barnett. Oozing a sense of effortless cool, it’s a striking, grunge-fuelled anthem, complete with scathing lyrical observations and a glaring poignancy with all that’s happening in the world today. Of the track, bassist Staz Lindes explains:

“‘Carnage Bargain’ is about the people higher up wanting to get all this evil work done at a wholesale price… It’s impossible for us to get through a day without thinking of the thousands of migrant children in cages at the border alone, some without proper beds, soap, toothbrushes, and with lights on 24/7. We can not continue to ignore the black lives, young and old, taken by police almost every week. The plastic crisis. The mass shootings… The list goes on, and the hole gets deeper. Sometimes I can’t sleep and I wonder: do they sleep well in the White House? What else can I do as a privileged citizen? They want to get a Carnage Bargain. I want to pick up garbage.”

As relevant in the UK right now as it is for the US band, ‘Carnage Bargain’ offers a perfect juxtaposition of immersive energy with a foreboding undercurrent of meaning, proving The Paranoyds as the sonic antidote we need right now.

Carnage Bargain, the upcoming album from The Paranoyds, is out 13th September via Suicide Squeeze.